Sutton House Social Studies Lab

19^th Century Journal Project©

at the Shelburne Community School in Shelburne, Vermont

Created by Jeffrey G. Hindes, M. Ed.

Rationale:  It is important for a community to preserve its local history.  For this to happen, it is imperative that the young people have a sense of their community’s heritage.  What better place for this to happen than in the schools of the community?

  Project History:  In the fall of 1997 an idea was generated.  Art Cohn, the director of the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum and Jeffrey Hindes, a middle school teacher and seventh generation Vermonter, decided to create a special experience for middle school students.  The goal was to get students immersed in local history through the use of primary sources.  

  Initially the plan was to use newspapers on microfilm.  Due to cost and space issues, that idea was scrapped.  Instead, it was decided to use journals of nineteenth century Vermonters as the liaison between the past and the students.  In the years since, the students on the Sutton House team at the Shelburne Community School have created research indexes for two journals and are in the process of transcribing, and publishing to the Internet, an 1,000 page handwritten daily record of a farm hand/lighthouse keeper on Lake Champlain.

  How the Project Works:  Students learn best when learning is relevant and meaningful.  The purpose of the Sutton Social Studies Lab is to provide students with an opportunity to make a personal connection with the past.  This personal connection is forged through first hand interaction with primary sources. In the case of the 19^th Century Journal Project, students interact with journals, diaries or daily records of Vermonters.

  Vermont, like many states, has any number of journals from ordinary people stashed away in attics, on shelves of historical societies and museums.  Many of these journals hold a wealth of information about the community.  However, most of the journals are rather inaccessible to the general public.  One of the missions of the 19^th Century Journal Project is to make these resources more accessible.  Another important goal is to engage the students in their community’s history through the words of someone who lived there. 

  The 19^th Century Journal Project uses two primary activities to immerse students in the past.  The first is creating research indexes and the second is transcribing journals.  Both activities have a research component that allows students to explore deeper into the time period during which the journal was written.

-         Research indexes: Indexes allow people to quickly look up information instead of having to read an entire journal to find information that may or may not be there.  (The journals that the students index have either been typed originally or previously transcribed into a typed or word-processed format.)

o       Role of the Student:  Each student is assigned a certain number of pages to index.  Indexing consists of recording the page number and/or date of each: person, business, place name, technology, or significant event.  Students can then research these topics. The information was then entered into a shared database created by a parent volunteer using Microsoft Access®. As the students index, they are asked to pay attention to things mentioned in the journal that piques their interest. 

o       When the Index is Complete:  After the students had compiled the data in the database, it is edited for accuracy.  Once the editing in complete, the index is bound and sent to the institution that lent the class the journal.  At the institution, the index is shelved along side the journal for easy access.

o       Research:  Students choose a topic of interest from the list that they created during the indexing process.  The students each do a mini-research project that sheds light on their topic. The findings are then presented to the class.

-         Transcription:  Transcription is used when the project uses a handwritten journal.  We use Microsoft Word® to create a word-processed version of the journal.  In this format the reader is able to search the document electronically, thus reducing the need for an index to find sought after information.  The transcribed text is then imported into Microsoft FrontPage® and then published on the Internet via the school server.

o       Role of the Student:  Each student is assigned a certain number of pages to transcribe.  As the students are transcribing, they are asked to pay attention to things mentioned in the journal that piques their interest.  Students can then research these topics.

o       When the Transcription is completed:  After students have finished transcribing and editing their pages, their portion of the journal is posted on the project website.  At this point the students move onto the research phase.

o       Research:  Students choose a topic of interest from the list that they created during the transcription process.  The students each create a mini-research project that sheds light on their topic.  Students are required to put together a web page including an image illustrating the topic and related Internet links in their essay. Students are required to obey all copyright laws when constructing their web page.

o       Making the Journal Interactive:  After the students have completed their mini-research project and web pages they create hyperlinks from the text of the journal to their research project.  This allows readers to click on terms or words in the journal and find out more information and visit related Internet sites.

Vermont Standards:  The 19^th Century Journal Project© addresses many of the standards and vital results found in Vermont's Framework of Standards and Learning Opportunities.  Below are three examples:

• GE H&SS7-8:8    Students connect the past with the present by…

  • Explaining differences between historic and present day objects in the United States and/or the world, evaluating how the use of the object and the object itself changed over time, (e.g., comparing modes of transportation used in past and present exploration in order to evaluate impact and the effects of those changes).

• VFS&LO  6.6              Being A Historian

o  Students use historical methodology to make interpretations concerning history, change, and continuity. This is evident when students:  6.6.c. Collect and use primary resources (e.g., letters, diaries, artifacts, artwork, documents) in building original historical interpretations.

• VFS&LO 4.6              Understanding Place

o  Students demonstrate understanding of the relationship between their local environment and community heritage and how each shapes their lives. This is evident when students:  4.6.cc. Explore and participate in sustaining or building on unique and valued elements of past and present community heritage.

• VFS&LO  1.18     Information Technology

  • Students use computers, telecommunications, and other tools of technology to research, to gather information and ideas, and to represent information and ideas accurately and appropriately.

• VFS&LO 1.4              Reading Range of Text

  • Students comprehend and respond to a range of media, images, and text (e.g., poetry, narrative, information, technical) for a variety of purposes (e.g., reading for pleasure as well as reading to develop understanding and expertise). This is evident when students:  1.4.c. Read primary and secondary sources

Project Extensions:  There are numerous curricular extensions to the 19^th Century Journal Project©.  Here are a few examples:

o       GPS and GIS Mapping:  Using GPS (Global Positioning System) and GIS mapping software, students can create accurate maps of the areas where the people who wrote the journals lived.  With this technology students can map the locations of homes, farms or other notable places mentioned in the journals. 

o       Artistic Impressions:  Students can create artistic interpretations of the events described in the journals.  Students could either do this in their classrooms or go “on location” to where the journal writer lived or visited.

o       Creative Writing:  Students could compose pieces of writing where they conduct an “interview” with the author of the journal.  Or, they could write as though they are a contemporary of the journal’s author.

Summary:

By experiencing the “19th Century Journal Project” students have a new appreciation for the work of historians and they have a new perspective on their own community.  The students find themselves experts on a subject that most had never even known about.  The students become “owners” of the history of their community.  This in turn helps them feel a personal connection and sense of belonging to their community. 

When the information is published on the Internet, the information previously stashed away on a museum shelf or in an attic is made available for members of the community (local or global) to browse at their leisure.  Embedded links to student research projects helps the reader develop a better understanding of the time period in which the journal was written, thus changing the reader’s historical perspective.

The “19th Century Journal Project” is a model that can be used in any community.  All that is required is a journal of some type to anchor the project.  The journals that my students have used all came from the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum’s collection.  Other communities have museums, libraries and historical societies that have similar resources collecting dust just waiting to be opened to reveal colorful perspectives on the past. 

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